A Trip To DC Part I

Washington DC is wonderful!

I've always loved DC. The history is amazing. New Jersey has a lot of history but is not the seat of it. New York had a lot of history, but rebuilt most of it so that the wonderful obvious history is not there anymore. Boston was a sheer delight for the same reason as DC - most of its history has been preserved.

We took the train down yesterday, after getting a ride from my father. We had a 1022 train but it was delayed out of Springfield, MA and did not get in until 1400 instead of 1325. Still, that's not awful. I did pick a regional train, though, instead of the Metroliner, which would have shaved maybe 20 minutes off of the trip. I did see tickets for the Acela train, which I've never been on, but it was a chunk more - $280 round trip instead of $147. I realise work is paying for this but there is no reason to do that to them.

We arrived in Union Station to sunny skies and some humidity but nothing too awful. DC can be beastly, but it was just a little hot and humid yesterday. Anna and Kirk were waiting for us and completely surprised to see Luis - and loved the way he looks! He does look amazing. It was wonderful to see them waiting for us. We decided to go to the Spy Museum to do something in the City since there were dire predictions for rain.

The Spy Museum was $15 per person and you certainly get a lot of bang for your buck. There were two floors of displays, photos with captions and mini-movies that people could read, look at and watch/listen. The stuff was fascinating - lipstick guns, cameras in rings, bugs, close- and far-range weapons. The caliber for a lipstick gun is .22, in case you are wondering. Clearly no good for that long-distance shot but terrible at close range.

We were in there for more than two hours and after a while it was torturous, rather than pleasant. For me - the muscular dystrophy does that. My legs and feet can't take all that protracted walking around. Also, while the movies were good, interesting and informative, the seats were open benches, with no back support. That made for a lot of patent back pain. And of course there is always someone with their 3-year-old child who yaks and screams through the movie because they certainly aren't watching it or getting anything out of it but their parents can't shut them up. A 3-year-old is going to be bored stiff in something like this! Come to think of it, most kids would be - this was more of an adult thing.

So it was after 1800 that we found ourselves in the gift store. I bought a postcard for a coworker and "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Spies and Espionage" - perfect! I love those books. Right now I'm reading "Forensics for Dummies".

We left there shortly after that purchase and came home and made a reservation at Clyde's Restaurant. The food was very good and we had a nice night out. By then it was thundering and lightning and when we got to Clyde's it was pouring. We got home at 2200 and I was not up too late after that.

I had Luis set his cell phone to 0630 wake up cal and he was up before me - good thing - I'm sure he would not have appreciated waking up to that. I crawled into the shower after a quick read of the Sunday comics, then got ready for the conference. Kirk gave me a ride - thank the gods - as it was pouring out, and I do mean pouring! It was unbelievable. The rain was so heavy it was unable to get into the storm drains and the streets in DC were heavily flooded. It was really something. Kirk dropped me off right in front of the brandy-new conference center and I ran in. I signed in, got my big red bag full of goodies and managed to sneak into one of the Sunday morning preregistered sessions. (No, I wasn't preregistered... heh, heh.) The class was excellent and no one held it against me that I can in an hour into it. That ran until noon, and then I walked around to see if I could find Vana. No luck. I came back to that hall and went to another course, "Batteries Not Included". Oh, that was so WORTH IT! This little tiny woman who was as wide as she is tall did a whole stand up routine that while it was a motivational speech, was so funny, we were howling. She was up front about her weight, spoke in a riotious Southern accent (all hers) and was just terribly funny! And she certainly had us HR people pegged! We were all delighted. A room full of HR people howling away was really a sight. But what fun! I would do motivational speaking like that! She was heavy on the life observations and sarcasm, something I understand.

She also had two stuffed crabs, and at the end of the course, I came up to her to tell her how delighted I was with the seminar and then asked where she got the crabs - and she handed me one! I love it. It is definitely going in my office!

I did not have my camera - I wasn't willing to take it into that rain - but I will have it tomorrow and take some photos. Since I will be in there on my own, I think I will try to do some sight seeing after. I love the city of DC. The Spy Museum was great, but I would like to see if the Smithsonian has a Forensics area. And I want to see the usual things and the Areospace Museum. I really always can see the Areospace Museum.

I hope I catch up with Vana while I'm here and she's here. I left a message on her work number and one on her home machine asking her to call my cell. I missed her this morning. I certainly don't want to miss her now. She lives in North Carolina, and I'm in Joisey, so we don't get to see each other often. When we worked for USI we saw each other about twice a year, and always had a delightful time.

I called Anna and they came to pick me up - I thought that I was taking the Metro back, but they were in DC to look at houses and they swung by, got me and then we went to look at two houses. These are right in Washington DC and this is not a cheap proposition. The houses were just under $1,000,000,000 - Jeeeeeesus! That is a boatload of money. But the houses were kind of nice! Not what I want, not in the middle of a big city, not without any yard, and not - most definitely, absolutely NOT - a rowhouse. I suspect that these are not like rowhouses that my British friends live in... most soundproof and less noisy. I certainly did not hear any extraneous noise. But I still would not want to be that close to my neighbours. Still, the houses were a lot nicer than I'd've thought.

After that we came home, where I scarfed down a sandwhich, which I really needed. Not wanted, needed... I had nothing to eat at all except for ingesting a large cup of caffeinated tea, and I was ravenously hungry and really low on blood sugar. I shouldn't do that to myself. But I had a ham on sourdough sandwhich and loved it. Anna and I then went out to the nail salon and had a manicure and pedicure and I even "splurged" and had my eyebrows waxed. It was a weird feeling as always to have that done. The process is not bad, but the skin feels "tight" after. And it looks more pronounced since my face has tanned, and there are now whitish outlines around my eyebrows. It's not super-noticeable, I just notice it.

My fingers are done with clear polish - there's never any point in using colour acrylic, since it peels and flakes almost immediately. The toes are done in a pearly colour, and look nice. They will last a lot longer. The pedicure was a total delight - she scraped and sawed the feet (the callouses and sides) and trimmed the nails, and then she massaged my lower legs and feet - sigh. It felt so wonderful! And then after that she did my nails and massaged my hands (before applying the polish). What a lovely experience! Sometimes one needs a bit of pampering! And for $40, that is a lot of pampering!

As I type, Luis is happily cooking a meal of shrimp and veggies and rice, there is the rumble of thunder overhead and I am happy and tired. After dinner I plan to have a swim in Anna's Olympic-size swimming tub [bathtub], and then it is off to bed!

So I am having a lovely time and thoroughly enjoying myself.